The majority of the ads were for candy, snack, sugared cereals and fast foods and most of its advertising was targeted at working class. This changed during the 1950s, when White Castle sponsored a children’s television show, The Cactus and Randy Show.
Fast food industry gas utilized a variety of approaches in order to attract the junior consumer and create an international children’s market.
Marketing research (2005) conducted by Nickelodeon suggests that nearly three quarters of children and youth report that they decide on their own what they eat for breakfast most or all of the time.
McDonald’s created child oriented characters, such as Ronald McDonald and began offering meals made especially for children, such as Happy Meals with toys and the creation of playground for children.
Ronald McDonald, the McDonald’s corporate clown icon started appear on local Washington, D.C. television commercials beginning in 1963.
Through extensive advertising, McDonald’s became the nation’s largest fast food chain during the 1970s.
Food marketing to children now extends beyond television and is widely prevalent in the internet; it is expanding rapidly into ubiquitous digital media cultures of new techniques including cell phone, instant message, video games and 3D dimensional virtual worlds.
Fast food advertising
